It’s possible to read too much into this, but Gates wasn’t nearly as blunt about the iPhone as he was back in 2005, when Reuters asked him whether he’d buy an iPod. (“Absolutely not,” he said at the time.) In contrast, here was his exchange with BusinessWeek over the iPhone:

Steve Jobs’s most recent performance was with the iPhone, a big rollout. Would you buy an iPhone at $499 or $599?

Well, of course, I’m the wrong person to ask. I like to dial numbers with one hand, and maybe I’m the only one.

I know you could afford the price, but do you think it’s a little steep?

Well, the marketplace will do a good job of judging that, and they can always change the price. The phone space is one where we have been focusing. It’s one of those places where we think software will be the critical element. That’s just more and more true. Why do people like Xbox 360? Software. Why do they like iPod? Software. If there’s anything good about the iPhone, it’s software. How many companies in the world can do really great software? We do it with an incredible research group, the willingness to take on the toughest software problems, and just stick at them, and to have a variety of hardware partners, and the biggest application software base.

We’re unique in this world of software. Will Nokia step up to a world where software is super-important? It’s not clear. Will Sony? Well, they’re trying, but so far it’s been tough for them. And if you look at the whole traditional consumer-electronics set of companies, most of those are going to be more supplying components and hardware systems. The software industry, which we’re a major part of, is going to be driving the magic in those things.

So the key trend to look at is the importance of software, and then say who really has shown the ability to do strong software? In some ways, just we have. If you define it more broadly, yes, Apple has done a few things well. Google has done a few things well. But, the leaps in software, and the kind of long-term investments we’re making make it clearer than ever that we picked the right business, and the right place to contribute.